Cybersecurity bill fails in Senate

By Ed O’Keefe and Ellen Nakashima – Senators voted 52 to 46 in favor of the bill, coming up short of the two-thirds majority necessary to advance it to a final vote.

In hopes of moving the bill forward, the White House and Democratic and Republican sponsors of the measure had agreed to weaken the proposal by making stricter security standards voluntary, instead of mandatory, for the large private firms that control most of the nation’s infrastructure.